Our favourite balanced TV shows

If you’re in need of a bit of light relief, escapism or adventure to get away from the news cycle right now, here are twelve of our favourite shows that we use to help us chill out, relax, smile, occasionally cry (in a good way) and generally feel balanced.

12. Springwatch

Twice a year (with its twin sisters Autumnwatch and Winterwatch), it’s a real joy to watch the gang as they bring us amazing footage and stories of British wildlife in their natural habitat. We may not be able to get out there as much as we’d like right now, but we can get a great taste of it with these guys; can’t wait for the new series! Check out the website too, loads of really cool nature stuff to explore: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qgm3

11. DIY SOS

Yep we know, it’s a bit of a tearjerker but we love it because it shows the best side of human nature - people coming together to help each other which let’s face it, is at least one of the positives we’re seeing right now. Check it out on iPlayer.

10. Ben Fogle’s Make a New Life in the Country

A fairly recent addition to our viewing - where people from busy city lives quit their jobs and head out into the countryside to build a new business - sometimes a hotel, restaurant or even a brewery. Check out the lady who takes on a hobby farm in John O’Groats - it’s a great episode! Available on 5 on Demand.

9. Kirstie & Phil’s Love it or List it

As much as TV couple as Torville and Dean or Ant and Dec, Kirstie and Phil’s on-screen husband and wife persona works perfectly in this show. What we all want to know though, is where does the money come from to build those amazing extensions? Is it really all forked out by the couples taking part? It’s great fun guessing what’s going to happen at the end - my head always says that they’ll love it; people are fond of their possessions, but you just never know.

8. Death in Paradise

I know; isn’t putting a show about murders in our top ten a little weird? Well this show is a little weird, quirky you might say, bordering light-hearted comedy. I’m not sure what that says about our society but it’s very tongue in cheek and pretty much follows the same format every time - someone is killed in the opening scenes on a small Caribbean island that must have a murder rate higher than anywhere on the planet.

There are four suspects who were all around at the time but seemingly in each other’s company or with some other watertight alibi. All have motive and it’s up to the bumbling British detective and his tiny local police force to solve the case. Turns out, far from bumbling, he’s actually a genius and I always struck by a Eureka moment that solves the case, often in the most convoluted fashion. What’s not to love? Check out all eight series on iPlayer.

7. Pointless

I love quizzes, always have! But it’s not just the quizzing or the witty repartee from co-hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman that makes this so enjoyable for us. More than that, it represents the end of the working day, time to sit down with a cuppa and chill or do a little exercise. It’s the trigger to balance out the day with a restful evening.

6. Grand Designs

It’s one of our dreams to build our own place in the country, even after watching countless episodes of this showing the trials, tribulations, complications and endless over-spending required. Living in the house that lives inside your imagination, that matches your very essence, has to be one of the truly great dreams.

5. Great Canal Journeys

Join Timothy West and Prunella Scales for adventure at 4 miles per hour. It’s a beautiful blend of adventure, nature and history, but more than that it’s watching the relationship between a couple married for nearly 60 years, a beautiful blend of comfortable conversation and a love that you can see is as strong as ever - made all the more poignant as they openly discuss Prunella Scales’ Alzheimer’s diagnosis and you see how it impacts her life as the series’ progress. Another tear-jerker at times I’m afraid.

4. The Repair Shop

What a thing of beauty this is - crafts and skills long-lost to modern life shown off to their very finest as highly skilled folk help repair and restore people’s treasured possessions'; everything from grandfather clocks to rocking horses, porcelain to bicycles. It isn’t a show about things, it’s a show about how our possessions represent the memories of our nearest and dearest, about how our hobbies are our greatest passions in life, about how most things can be fixed with patience and time, and about how we can all use our talents to show kindness to others. New series on BBC One, Wednesday nights at 8pm.

3. Portillo’s Great Railway Journeys

Who’d have thought you could so grow to love a Tory MP once deemed so obnoxious by a large proportion of the country? But his affable presenting style, his gaudy outfits that always clash so loudly that scientists may in future believe they were the causes of the second big bang, the tales of history he weaves using his Appleton’s Guide and the epic scenery as he makes his way around the world by train, showing how a truly British invention changed the world in a million ways, all come together to make him seem like a (in the words of a once famous Harry Enfield character)…thoroughly bloody awfully nice bloke.

2. Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild

The only man to make it onto our list twice, Ben Fogle is a bet of a hero of ours. A great adventurer, a real fitness enthusiast, a heart of gold and an ability to come across as just entirely normal, someone you’d definitely want to spend time on a bike ride with and then have a drink in the pub after.

This show is so special because he takes you to the far corners of the world to meet people who have truly gone off the grid, often living in some of the weirdest and most wonderful dwellings you could imagine. It’s as much about finding out what’s driven the person to that place, that life as it is about what and where. Check out episodes 1 (Iceland) and 5 (Oregon) of the latest series - some fascinating characters.

1. Bake-Off

It was tough picking a winner, but this one just about takes the biscuit, and the cake, and the bread, pastry and whole host of other tasty goodies! It’s a non-stop drool-fest from start to finish and the only downside to it is that it really does make you crave something tasty right there and then.

The balance of presenters and experts is always planned to perfection (looking forward to see what Matt Lucas brings) and the baking skills on show are truly astonishing. Some of the showstoppers literally blow my mind! It may not have the adventure, but it has a beautiful, idyllic in fact, English country garden, a sun that always shines, humour and tasty treats…what more could you want?

Seven reasons why we love books!

It’s World Book Day and as you know, we are absolute book fiends! The feel of the cover, the sound when the pages turn, the joy of getting completely lost inside a written world, there’s so much to shout about so let’s celebrate the wonderful book with a look at the many benefits to be gained by reading.

Relaxation: Books are a wonderful source of escape. Whether you’re climbing through those wardrobe doors into Narnia or summiting Everest with your favourite explorer, they help you to get away from the stresses and strains of life, maybe just for ten minutes or maybe an entire rainy Sunday morning. In 2009, a group of American researchers tested the effects of 30 minutes of either reading, yoga or comedy on stress levels. All three significantly reduced acute stress levels by a similar amount, lowering both heart rate and blood pressure in what is a relatively short period of time; great news for book lovers.

Escape from screens and technology: There’s something so different about reading on paper compared to a screen; maybe it’s the lack of brightness and glare, maybe it’s just the fact that so much of our lives these days is a marriage of our eyes and a luminescent screen. Whatever it is, books help you to feel like you’ve escaped to a bygone era, one where the world moves at a slower pace, everybody knows each other and still says good morning, one where the words ‘Brexit’ and ‘Coronavirus’ sound like the gibberish nonsense of an alien being recently crash-landed just outside the village.

Stories and adventures: books are like keys to the imagination, unlocking doors to incredible and unthought of possibilities, opening your mind to facts, ideas and plots beyond your wildest dreams. Through millennia the human brain has thrived on storytelling to pass on fables of quests, incredible feats, pride in our ancestry and just sheer imagination. For much of that time we had to rely on the spoken word but the book opened up the possibility of sharing those stories and ideas with so many more people. Interestingly, some studies have shown that reading fiction books can help improve a person’s empathy skills, possibly because the book takes the person deep into the thoughts and feelings of another character.

Learning: books teach us so much; non-fiction gives us facts, knowledge, records of people’s experiences and ideas for the future, but fiction can teach us many things too - to think in different ways, about politics, religion, love, art, crime and much more all through a cleverly woven story and all books broaden our language skills, introducing us to phrases, sayings, expressions, other languages, grammar and more besides.

Brain function: I don’t know about you but I always feel so much better able to concentrate through reading; to immerse myself in one thing without interruptions. You don’t get that with technology, you try to read an article but get one of an abundance of different noises to signify a message from a friend, an email offering you the best sale prices on your favourite stuff, or alerts to tell you how many people liked your Facebook post earlier. Only in a book can you truly focus - it’s almost meditative in its quality, your eyes scanning the pages line after line, only occasionally looking away to check how many pages until the chapter ends and wondering when would be best to put it down before it draws you in ever deeper.

Sleep routine: reading an actual book before sleep is our nightly ritual - phones safely stored away in another room, it’s where we can truly start to unwind. And because it’s a habit (and you know how much I love those), our brains know that what comes after reading is sleep. It’s a cue that we use to set up a desired behaviour, a extension of Pavlov’s dogs…words on a page = time to snooze soon. One of the biggest wins of a book over an e-reader is that it doesn’t rely on blue light. The brightness of a screen stimulates the brain into essentially believing it is daytime and can increase levels of stress hormones, delaying sleep.

Pleasure: There’s just sheer joy to be had from reading a book; maybe it’s one you read as a child and reading it again, for yourself or to your children evokes memories of happy times. Maybe it’s the places it takes you; to the ends of the earth, alien worlds, a parallel universe or your favourite town or country, to the middle of nowhere or the centre of the busiest city on Earth. Maybe it’s the enjoyment you get from talking through the twists and turns of the plot with friends, maybe it’s the powerful feelings evoked by the writer; happiness, sadness, fear, passion, intrigue, or maybe it’s just the weight of the book in your hand, the smell of the paper or the fact that it signifies time just for you.

Whatever you love about books, keep reading, they’ll definitely help you to find your balance.

What our house will look like one day!

What would a perfectly balanced day look like?

If finding your balance is all about repeating good habits over time, then the first step is to work out what one perfectly balanced day looks like, and then repeat it as often as possible.

Let’s have a look at what that nicely balanced day might contain…

1. Seven to nine hours of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. That means the perfect day actually starts the evening before, going to bed at the right time in order to meet your requirements. One scientific study even went so far as to calculate the ideal time to get out out bed - apparently it’s 7:22. The researchers found that people who rose at or after this time had lower levels of cortisol, possibly because it enabled them to get adequate amounts of sleep.

2. The ideal breakfast. Some would argue for porridge; the oats and low Glycemic Index serving to fill you up and energise you throughout the day. If your dietary choices allow for them though, you can’t go wrong with eggs. They’re packed full of important proteins to stave off hunger and increase alertness, there’s vitamins for a healthy body and good fats to keep your brain and heart in peak working condition. A study by Direct Line, yep the ones with the musical phone, found that giving yourself 22 minutes to enjoy your breakfast in a calm environment was optimal.

3. The work bit. Dan Buettner, author of The Blue Zones, a book about why it is that people in certain parts of the world live longer, happier lives, has reviewed research on more than 20 million people worldwide through the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, and says “When it comes to your work, try to work part-time, 30–35 hours a week.” Working less is consistently linked to increased health and happiness, but maybe surprisingly, doesn’t seem to affect productivity - people get the same amount done in less time. A working day starting at 9/9:30 and finishing around 4/4:30 would meet these requirements comfortably.

4. Free time. Returning to the Direct Line survey, they claimed we should all have 6 hours 59 minutes of awake, non-work or ‘free’ time. This includes 18 minutes on social media (some of us may need to work on this one), 2 hrs 21 minutes eating, including 53 mins for lunch, 1 hour for TV watching and another hour for ‘me’ time.

5. Exercise. In terms of cardiovascular activity, the current guidelines are actually based on weekly totals - either 150 minutes of moderately hard exercise or 75 minutes of very hard training; working harder gives the benefits in half the time. As a daily average, that equates to around 21 minutes, 30 seconds of moderate activity, or 10 minutes 45 seconds of hard effort. A very short amount of time for a very large level of reward.

6. Socialising and family time. Back to Direct Line world again, where everyone is comprehensively insured. Their report suggested we get 45 minutes-1 hour of socialising each day and research is clear; people who spend more time with friends live longer, happier lives. Another hour is given for quality family time, whether you want it or not. ;-)

7. Bedtime. And so we’re back where we started, where all days start and end. Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep, says that whilst there’s no specific time to get to sleep, there does appear to be an idea window somewhere between 8pm and 12 midnight. As I talked about right at the start, it’s worth working backwards to ensure you get your 7-9 hours. If you’re getting up at 7:22 this means anywhere from 10:22-12:22 should be fine. If you’re a night owl you may shift this later if you can rise at your own leisure, whilst if you’re a morning lark you’ll likely want to shift this forwards.

And there we have it, seven habits for a balanced day. Repeat them often enough and health, fitness and happiness are just around the corner. :-)

Kindness - the most important habit of all?

Ebenezer Scrooge throws open the window on that snowy Christmas morning and throws the young boy in the street some money to get him the prize turkey from the poulterers shop, plus a generous tip for his time. What Dickens is showing us is that a new man has been born, a kind one. It’s the central theme of the book, the notion that being kind and generous not only makes others happy, but you too in the process. Of course it’s framed in Victorian godliness, with kindness ultimately being the way to redemption.

In more modern times, there’s a wonderful episode of Friends entitled ‘The one where Phoebe hates PBS’, where she tries to prove to Joey that selfless good deeds do exist. What follows are numerous attempts by her to show kindness, but frustratingly for her, she keeps feeling good about it, proving Joey’s point that when being kind to others, there’s always something in it for you too. But hey, that’s ok, it’s what the legendary self-help author Stephen Covey would call ‘Win:Win’.

I’ve spent my adult life searching for the magical formula for what makes us fitter, healthier and happier, my very own grail quest if you will. It led me down a long and winding path that ultimately brought me to the point where I realised it wasn’t one single thing that provides us with wellbeing, rather a broad collection of habits that must be regularly performed in much the same way as plants need regular feeding and watering to thrive.

But…what if there were one habit that may just be more important than all of the others? Partly because it’s such a powerful habit in terms of its ability to boost your mental wellbeing, but also because in turn, those changes in mental wellbeing boost your energy and motivation to perform the other healthy habits. I’ve come to suspect that the habit in question might be kindness.

Kindness isn’t an emotion, it’s an action and that’s why it’s so powerful. Unlike say happiness, which we’re all constantly seeking, which we feel pressure to experience more often, especially in the picture-perfect world of social media. But happiness is a feeling, and feelings can need experiences and actions for them to occur. Much like the recent piece I wrote noting that something makes you happy and that happiness makes you smile, but smiling as an action in itself can also make you happy. You can’t just feel happy, something has to happen to feel an emotion. Kindness is different, it’s an act and the wonderful thing is, that being kind makes you happy.

The Mental Health Foundation Report

Back in 2012, The Mental Health Foundation produced a great little free download for Mental Health Awareness Week. In it, they summarised the effects of doing good and helping others on our wellbeing. In brief, they reported that:

• Stress levels decrease and our immune system is strengthened

• There’s a decrease in negative feelings like anger, aggression and hostility

• Our mood improves, as does self-esteem and confidence

• Happiness levels rise quickly and this brings increased feelings of calm in the long-term

• Social connections improve; we have a greater sense of belonging and therefore feel less isolated

• We feel more optimistic about things

As well as just interacting more with people, these benefits could derive from a sense of perspective gained from helping others less fortunate than yourself, an increased level of support due to reciprocity (others tend to help you more when you help them and over time it appears that you can build a ‘kindness bank’ of memories that helps you to feel good about yourself.

Happy hormones

Numerous chemical changes occur through acts of kindness. Dopamine, serotonin, opioid and oxytocin are all increased in the ‘flood that comes from doing good’. Even witnessing others being kind releases the same substances, but doing it yourself delivers a greater dose. These hormones have a positive impact on mood, increase relaxation and lead to less feelings of depression, but also reduce physical measures like blood pressure and feelings of pain. One study showed that levels of the stress hormone cortisol were 23 per cent lower in people who were more kind, and kindness even appeared to slowed the ageing process.

The research

Here’s a collection of scientific studies and their findings in relation to kindness and wellbeing. Just cos you know, it’s nice to know I’m not just making it up! ;-)

• In one study, students from a university were tasked with performing five random acts of kindness (RAK’s) each week. They could be small like making someone a cup of tea or bigger like giving blood, the choice was theirs. Over six weeks, wellbeing scores improved in students who took part, versus those who didn’t

• Another study of Japanese university students found that happy people were generally kinder than unhappy folk. They also found that happiness increased through simply counting the number of acts of kindness you performed, which in turn made them kinder still and more grateful

• MS (Multiple Sclerosis) sufferers who provided peer support to others with the condition had less symptoms of depression and improved their confidence, self-awareness and self-esteem

• In a study looking at how the brain responded to acts of kinds, MRI scans showed that there was increased activity in the meso-limbic system, an area stimulated when we are rewarded. Helping others appears to give us pleasure sensation, a type of euphoria sometimes referred to as ‘helper’s high’ 

Of course, as with everything, we can have too much of a good thing and other research has noted that too much helping or volunteering can overwhelm us, leaving us feeling stressed and at times outweighing the benefits we derive. This has been referred to as compassion fatigue. Helping others to the extent that we don’t help ourselves enough, maybe financially, by not giving us enough time to do the things important to us, or just to the point where we become overly tired (being helpful takes effort) can all have a negative impact on wellbeing, so it’s important to find the right balance.

What can we do?

Acts of kindness can come in many forms, large to small - picking something up for someone if they drop it, holding a door or letting a car out in traffic can all be easy wins. You might go further and provide mentoring services to someone, raise money for good causes or even do some volunteering.

Apparently, we tend to volunteer more as we get older, maybe because we have more free time or generally a better income which allows us to be more generous, or maybe our values change as we age? Whatever the reason, clearly it’s a helpful thing to do; studies show that people of 55 or over had a 44% lower risk of dying young when they did volunteering.

I’ll leave you with two quotes from very different people, but both equally powerful.

“We cannot do great things on this earth, only small things with great love. ”

— Mother Theresa

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give. ”

— Winston Churchill

Be kind,

Paul

A balanced approach to IT rage

Technology is wonderful, but these days we have so much if it and use it so often, that occasionally it won’t work as well as we want it to. I can rarely go a week without some sort of issue with computer, phone, iPad or watch and it leaves me feeling like IT is s*IT. It also leaves me feeling frustrated, stressed and angry, so I thought I’d share with you a few ways that we can all manage our IT rage.

1) First of all, try not to do this.

It’s probably going to be a very costly way of getting your stress levels down.

2) What about swearing and shouting?

There are mixed theories on this. One side of the argument suggests that it’s better to let your anger out, but a lot of recent work suggests that it can in fact make anger a learned behaviour, the way you respond when something stressful happens. I’ll be honest, this was my common response when my laptop crashed or phone froze and I lost a big piece of work I’d been doing in the process. Hearing me go nuts at my computer however was not a very pleasant thing for Vicky to experience and so I’ve been working on some alternative solutions.

3) Walk away

If your computer has frozen or isn’t doing what it should, get up and make yourself a cup of tea (a good brew solves plenty of problems), do another task or even go for a short walk. Moderate exercise is great for stress management, especially if you get outside as it can burn off some of the excess adrenaline you’ve built up and being in natural surroundings is known to relax you and improve your mood. When you come back, the problem may or may not have resolved itself, but even if it hasn’t, you’ll find the urge to break the Laptop Shot-put world record may have subsided.

4) Re-boot

In a similar vein to walking away, shutting down and re-starting can have a positive effect. It’s the golden solution to many IT problems anyway, but it also just allows you a pause to calm down a little.

5) Plan ahead

One of the best things I’ve done to make IT failures less stressful is to put in place a series of back-ups to prevent it being a problem. This ranges from more technological solutions like storing back-ups of all files in the mysterious and ethereal ‘cloud’, changing settings to ensure documents are auto-saved as frequently as possible and can be restored and updating software more often, to more simple techniques like copying text from any post I’m about to make to Facebook in case it freezes and I lose it. Even if it does go wrong, it then doesn’t take much to recover or re-do what I was working on.

6) Try some progressive relaxation

Starting at your shoulders, tense them as much as you can for a couple of seconds, then breathe out slowly and focus on relaxing them as you do so. Work down your body, one muscle group at a time; spend a few minutes doing this and you’ll be feeling calmer in no time.

7) Laugh

Watch or listen to a few minutes of comedy; the hormones released can help to leave you feeling better already. Alternately, joke to a family member, friend or colleague about the situation, it may help to take the tension out of the situation.

8) Reframe

More than anything, what we can all probably do better these days is realise that more often that not it just isn’t the end of the world. We can re-do whatever we were working on, we can sometimes recover lost files and it often spurs us into doing something to prevent it happening again in future or trying a different approach. Frame it as learning rather than an annoyance and you may find it helpful instead.

Do any one of these and you’re on the way to slightly better balance.

Paul :-)

A balanced afternoon

Here's a quick quiz to see how balanced your afternoons are. Score one point for yes, zero for no.

1) Do you eat lunch away from work or stresses in a relaxed environment?

2) Do you get up and move for at least five minutes every hour during the afternoon?

3) Do you get outside for some fresh air for ten minutes or more across the afternoon?

4) Do you stop drinking caffeinated drinks by late afternoon?

5) If eating snacks in the afternoon, do you choose healthy options?

6) Do you feel alert and energised across the afternoon?

7) If you do feel tired, do you give yourself a short break to just sit quietly and relax or use power naps to give you a boost where you can?

8) Do you drink water, squash or herbal tea regularly through the afternoon to stay hydrated?

9) Do you have strategies in place to ensure healthy options should you suffer the common mid-afternoon lull?

10) Do you avoid sitting in the sun during the hottest part of the day, or at least where enough suntan lotion if you do?

Less than 3 points shows there's plenty you can do to improve your balance, 4-7 points means you're on the way to balance and 8 or more means you're well balanced.

Six steps to sleep soundly through a sizzling summer

Higher temperatures make getting a good night's sleep much tougher. Here are six steps you can take to snooze a little better through the warm nights...

1) Keep the curtains closed in the day

Blocking out sunlight can help keep room temperature down. Better still, invest in blackout curtains so that you'll also be able to block out light at night too. Any light source, no matter how small, can cause you body to produce hormones associated with alertness, leaving you wide awake.

2) Shower before bedtime

Use tepid water to help cool your body down. Sleep is a time when we move from the more active (higher temperatures) of the day to the more restful (lower temperatures) of rest and recovery. It'll also leave you feeling clean and comfortable and help you to relax.

3) Invest in a fan

High quality fans can be used to lower the room temperature, and provide a source of white noise, which is known to help you nod off. You can also place them by windows to push hot air out and even stick a pop bottle full of water in the freezer until it's a solid block of ice, then place in front of the fan to drive temperatures down.

4) Opt for less layers

That means bedding and clothes. As mentioned earlier, you want to be cool to sleep well. That high tog duvet you bought for the winter is no use on a balmy summer's night. Instead, use multiple thinner layers and strip off the ones you don't need for warmer nights. On the warmest nights, often just a sheet will do. The same with your PJ's, swap out those flannel trousers for something a bit more comfortable, or you can always go 'au naturel'.

5) Go low

Warm air rises so the nearer to the ground you are, the cooler you'll be. In his book 'Sleep: The myth of 8 hours, the power of naps and the new plan to recharge your body and mind', sleep coach to the world's sporting stars Nick Littlehales suggests that you don't even need a bed, just a comfortable mattress that fits your body's needs.

There's no need to throw the frame out just yet; simply consider using airbeds or bedding on the floor if you're really struggling on hotter nights.

6) Try sleeping outside

Summer is the perfect time of year to have a little adventure; go camping or simply sleep in the back garden with the kids for a little adventure. The air is fresher and you'll feel refreshed and recharged because you've re-synced your body with its natural rhythms of daylight and darkness. Just don't go for the 'au naturel' option suggested earlier unless you've got really high fences, or you may prevent your neighbours from sleeping for months!

Try just one of these to start with and hopefully you'll feel less like this...

And more like this...

Have we lost our balance when it comes to technology?

The walk home from school was a short one, about 10-15 minutes, and even less if I ran back which I often did. If it was summertime and still light in the evenings, I’d disappear off to play football with my mates from Atcham Close and the surrounding streets. You could always be guaranteed of good numbers for a game, often way too many leading to a good pile of jumpers for goalposts. Occasionally we’d mix it up with ‘acky 123’ (a bit like tig/tag) or ‘tracking’, both great childhood games, or exploring on our bikes and climbing trees. It mattered little if it rained; you just got wet. 

It was only in the very worst weather and during the darker months that we needed to occupy our time indoors. And that’s where the legendary Spectrum ZX came in to its own…well, sometimes. Games were all on cassette tapes and took an age to load, I’m not sure exactly how long as time seems vastly different when you’re a child, but in my mind, it seemed to take 20 minutes or more, watching the multi-coloured stripes roll across the screen, changing constantly like some sort of psychedelic art display. Quite often, towards the end of the lengthy loading process it would error, and my mom would say ‘never mind, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow’. The disappointment was short-lived as it normally meant it was time for tea!

Computers at school were limited to Acorns, where we’d be given a sheet of commands to type in that would draw shapes on the screen. Outside of these ‘high-tech’ experiences, there was very little interaction with technology, except the original Atari and Sega video games in the arcades of Britain’s seaside resorts. They were fun but to be honest, we always ended up veering back towards the 2p slot machines, reserved these days purely for contestants on the decidedly average ITV gameshow, Tipping Point.

Family holidays were instead spent walking, playing any number of sports, exploring castles, on the beach or if confined indoors again because of the less than reliable British Summertime, playing cards, board games, reading books or watching one of four TV channels.

Today's tech-filled world

Fast forward to 2018 and how different the world has become in just one generation. I suppose every generation says that, but I wonder how our technology legacy is affecting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the current generation and those to come? 

Don’t get me wrong; there are many wonderful things that technology has brought for society. The ability to keep in touch at a distance, business communications, medical advances, environmental benefits from the reduced need for paper, and assisting in running our increasingly busy lives. In fact, I recently read that 90 per cent of the jobs we have today didn’t even exist 30 years ago, largely because they’re so heavily reliant on new technologies, which must be good for the economy right? I do wonder though if we haven’t lost our balance in recent times. Technology once felt like it helped in our daily lives; now it feels like it runs them.

Take a recent train journey home I was making from Birmingham as an example. I’d been teaching a Personal Trainer course and had walked to Fiveways station to jump on the train, avoiding the busier New Street. Stood on the platform I looked across at those waiting to head in the opposite direction and it is not an exaggeration to say that every single one of the roughly thirty people stood there were looking down at their phone screens. I considered the irony of pulling out my own phone to photograph the scene and decided against it. Now I doubt very much, that in times gone by, this group would be merrily chatting away to the strangers they stood next to; they’d likely have had their heads buried in a book or newspaper instead, but it seemed to me as if we’d lost touch with our surroundings and our ability to sometimes just stand and take in the moment.

Technology, particularly our phones, is often credited with bringing us together, helping us live more sociable lives. We certainly can keep in touch with more people, or rather we can ogle the filtered versions of each other’s daily lives presented in the form of posts, photos and videos on ‘Twittergrambook’. 

I’m a user myself, a self-confessed addict. Social Media is a huge part of my business and the main way I seek to reach and help people. Most likely you’re reading this because you clicked the link from the Facebook page so I’m certainly not preaching going off the grid completely. I just wonder if we’ve lost our balance a little; if we could spend more time disconnected. I know I certainly could. Did we once have better balance and better relationships with the fewer people we kept in touch through the ancient arts of letter writing and telephone calls? 

The effort of writing a letter, card or postcard, scripting it, locating an envelope if needed, and back in the day licking the stamp, then making time to post it represents a huge amount of thoughtfulness on the part of the sender. Once sent you were content and certainly didn’t expect an immediate response; you simply got on with life and then one day had a pleasant surprise when you received a reply.

We live in an instant world. On a given day I’ll have text messages, emails, voicemails and Facebook messages all piling up, awaiting my reply. Even if the sender doesn’t intend it, you feel pressure to respond quickly, as if you’re being rude by not doing so. At its worst points, this has led me to check my phone almost constantly, concerned that I’ve missed a message from someone, and I’ve even suffered from ‘Ghost Phone’, that sensation that your mobile is vibrating in your pocket with a message from someone, when in fact it hasn’t. 

Vicky has rightly admonished me on more than one occasion for checking my phone for news, football scores or messages whilst we’re out and about, at dinner or on holiday. It has become so endemic that we have a name for it; absent presence. It means we’re there in body, but our mind is away in our digital world. Take this current TV ad from Tesco mobile which states ‘Your phone is more than just your phone…it’s kind of your life.’

‘So what?’ you may ask. Well, overuse of technology can lead to a wide range of issues:

 

Illness and injury

• Postural, muscular and joint problems. Spending too much time sat at a desk can lead to tight hamstrings, hips and shoulders, pulling you out of your natural alignment and creating pain and injuries everywhere from head to toe. Overuse of a phone and other handheld devices has led to the creation of a whole range of new injury terms including a few years ago ‘Blackberry thumb’ and more recently ‘Text Neck’.

• It’s not just your musculoskeletal system that can be impacted; your eyes can too. Computer Vision Syndrome covers a range of eye issues that are caused by too much screen time, with various studies reporting than between 50 and 90 per cent of us have been affected.

• In the news this very week has been the potential link between mobile phones and brain tumours. At present the stance of major organisations such as Cancer Research UK and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) say that there is no clear evidence of a link between phones and cancers, but that more research is needed for a definitive answer to be given.

Mental health

It’s not just physical ailments we need to be wary of when trying to find the right balance, there are mental health considerations too:

• Loneliness and self-esteem issues have both been linked to the use of Social Media, but the picture is complex. Some studies show increased issues with greater use of Social media sites, whilst others show the opposite. The real answer as always likely lies somewhere in the middle, in finding the balance right for the individual. Studies have suggested that viewing others social media whilst not getting involved yourself, known as ‘social snacking’ may cause feelings of loneliness to be exaggerated afterwards, whilst comparing yourself with others can affect self-esteem.

Comparing yourself to others is not a new phenomenon and certainly not exclusive to social media. Before the popularity of YouTube and Instagram, it was magazines who courted much of the attention for airbrushing celebrities and publishing unrealistic lifestyles that youngsters tried but failed to copy. Wanting to be like others has always been an issue creating envy and self-esteem issues, technology now just heightens it through its ability to reach almost the entire planet.

It’s not all bad though. Research in elderly subjects has suggested that having contact with others through social media helped to lessen feelings of loneliness and very recent studies have suggested taking a smiley selfie can boost mood and confidence.

• There’s no off-switch. Phones and computers so allow us to connect with others, to take our work out with us wherever we are and to keep up with the latest news around the world, that can also mean we never truly switch off. It’s no coincidence that the boom in technology has also seen a growth in techniques like Mindfulness. Our brains are deluged with so much information on a daily basis that we desire, and need, the ability to shut down and process it all.

• Read about any ancient culture, tribe or civilisation and one of the most common themes is an awareness of your own mind and body, and an inter-connectedness with nature. Yoga, tai chi, any number of martial arts, the practices of Shaman and wise tribal elders the world over are all evidence of a once strong connection between people and the nature which surrounded them. Just one example of how this has changed in modern times is the map. Once we studied these on pieces of paper, planned our routes and used them to guide us along when needed. This progressed to the printing of multiple pages of written instructions in the late 90s and early 2000s from the AA or RAC, where you’d sometimes forget how many roundabouts you’d gone straight over at and have to stop (or not) whilst you attempted to count them on the page to work out where you are. Today we don’t even bother to navigate at all; in cars we type in our destination and are told where to go, completely oblivious to our surroundings, whilst on foot we run the risk of ‘text neck’ and head-on collisions with others as we focus on the blue dot as it moves around the map.

• Anger. This is one I definitely need to work on. The pace at which technology has developed has left many of us behind, meaning what we think it can do versus what we're capable of making it do don't always match up. Add to that the fact that technology is made by humans and we should realise it's as prone to error as anything else, yet when we can't get it to work it can lead to 'tech-rage'. As with all stresses, this stems from a lack of control and is a response to just how much we rely on technology to live our daily lives.

• Safety and security. You can't have escaped the news headlines of recent times about the improper use of our personal data. Add this to online bullying, trolling, hacking and cyber-crime and there's a strong movement towards getting our identities offline for fear of the above. The pressure caused by recent events has led to changes for the better but many people are still fearful of the consequences of their online presence.

Fitness and Energy expenditure

Technology has affected our exercising too. When I started working in gyms I’d often notice people moving incredibly slowly or sometimes even stopping on the cardiovascular machines and standing stock still whilst starting at the screen, before starting again at a very laboured pace. I’d go over to chat and discover that the machine was telling them their heart rate was too high and they were moving out of the legendary fat-burning zone. I’d ask how they were feeling and they’d always reply to say they felt fine, not in the slightest bit breathless at all and I’d try my best to get them to ignore the data and go on how they felt, working to a point where they were warm and slightly breathless.

More recently I’ve become a slave to fitness devices, evidenced by the Garmin on my left wrist and the Fitbit on my right. The Garmin is fancy and suggests how many hours of recovery I need before I can exercise again. Whilst useful, I know my own body and can disagree with Mr Garmin’s suggestions not to exercise for the next three days. I do however make use of the resting heart rate tool, knowing full well that when this is elevated by a few beats I’m a bit tired and if five beats more than normal, it’s definitely time to ease back. Again, it’s all about striking the right balance.

The increasingly easy nature of our lives is most certainly connected to a decrease in health and fitness and increase in waist sizes across the planet. Gone are the days of walking miles to work in a job that involved hard graft and carrying our shopping home from the supermarket. One wonderful childhood memory I have is of Saturday mornings when I’d visit my nan and grandad. Their back garden had a gate that led right out onto the canal and from there we could walk along to the local shops, my nan with her trusty black leather and tartan trolley in tow, me racing along with the dog, stock up on supplies and make our way back in time for Grandstand.

Today it’s different. Technology allows us to reduce calorie burn at every opportunity. We can order almost anything online and have it delivered to the door, drive to and from work and spend the whole day sat down, enjoy hobbies that involve nothing more than flicking our thumbs around a game control and even our cars these days save us the bother of turning on lights, windscreen wipers or lifting the handbrake. 

We have learned to be lazy. Survival of the fittest has become more survival of the tech-savvy, or has it? All of those little calories we would previously have burned add up over weeks and months to weight gain and precede further health issues. Muscles become weakened and waste away, or to give it the fancy term, atrophy due to the lack of challenge they receive. This includes the most important muscle of all, your heart.

How can you find a balance?

Whilst my intention is not to paint a picture of some sort of dystopian science fiction future Earth where technology has taken over, it is to present an argument that we might need to make some changes and that these involve rediscovering things from times gone by, simpler forms of living. Here are my top tips for a balanced lifestyle when it comes to technology. I shall be working hard to practice some of them myself.

1)         Make a stand. Avoid sitting all day at work; if you can, get a standing desk. The fancy ones allow you to lift and lower them as desired, so you can mix sitting and standing. If not, be sure to take regular breaks away from your desk and walk around. Speak to people across the hall rather than email them, make a drink, get out to buy lunch or walk in the park, anything that keeps you moving.

2)         Set technology boundaries. This might be times of day when you won’t look at your phone or laptop, or maybe even ‘tech-free days’ for the whole family where you can enjoy active hobbies or relive times gone by with cards, board games or whatever takes your fancy. You can set most technology these days to silent or to power down between certain hours, so use the fancy features to help you find a better balance.

3)         Consider how you communicate. Could you call or visit someone rather than text or email? Or if you’re feeling really nostalgic, write a letter or send someone a postcard.

4)         Think about how you use social media. Is it a positive influence in your life or do you feel it affects you in a negative way? I’ve had positive experiences in the past by reducing the number of social media sites I use and also by vastly reducing the time I spend on my particular addiction, Facebook. 

5)         Escape. Get out in the great outdoors, somewhere you’re surrounded by nature and just take in the present moment. Listen to the birds singing, the wind in the trees, the sound of the river flowing by and refresh and reinvigorate yourself. It’s also a great way to get your exercise in which is a sure-fire way to help you feel balanced.

Yours in balance,

Paul

Deskitis

The average Brit spends 9 hours each day sitting

That's a big problem.

9 hours each day sat down. Over a third of our day; it's such a big problem that when the government last changed their exercise guidelines they felt compelled to add in a line saying that we should minimise the time we spend sitting. It's no wonder we're all suffering from 'deskitis'.

That's the term I give to the postures, pains and movement problems I see daily in clients who spend most of their day at work sat down. 

Ideally, we should have a naturally S-shaped spine which is termed 'neutral spine', with a small inwards curve in the lower (lumbar region) and another outwards curve in the upper (thoracic region). This helps to spread load evenly between the discs of the spine, makes movement easier and prevents wear and tear.

Unfortunately, sitting can cause tightness in some muscles and weakness in others and this leads the the spine being pulled out of this neutral alignment. Common problems include:

• Tightness in the chest and shoulder area, causing the upper spine to 'slump' forwards. The muscles of the upper back become stretched and weak and we can get neck pain and pain all the way down the spine as a result.

• An excessive forwards tilt of the pelvis, caused by tightening of the muscles at the front of your hips; the hip flexors, and those of the lower back. At the same time, your abdominal and bum muscles become stretched and weakened and instance of lower back pain increase.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is move. As often as you can, rise from your desk and wander around. This will help loosen the muscles and restore the balance of tightness and length.

If possible, work standing up when you can. Your postural muscles have to activate here to hold you upright.

You can also perform certain exercises that target the muscles, loosening the tight ones and strengthening those that have become weak.

Check out the workout section of the blog where there are loads of great exercises that will help you move better and stand taller.

If you have only a few minutes every day, try the three exercises in the video below.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE: if you have any medical conditions or injuries, aches or pains and have not discussed becoming more physically active with a GP or physio, please do so before starting this or any exercise routine and follow their guidance as to what is safe and suitable for you. If you have any questions or queries about any of these exercises, please do get in touch and I'll be happy to help.

A few quick wins to help improve your posture and movement.

Yours in balance,

Paul

A balanced take on stress

Stress.

It’s hard to escape it. Everything is so fast-paced these days and there are so many demands for our attention and time at home, at work and online. It’s thought we process 34 gigabytes of data through our brains each day, around 105,000 words absorbed through emails, the internet and other sources. It’s no wonder we sometimes struggle to cope.

And we do struggle; in 2013, the mental health charity MIND reported that 34 per cent of people surveyed said that work was either quite or very stressful. Last year the HSE reported that 12.5 million work days were lost due to stress and it was recently reported that stress affects one in five of the working population.

What if that last statistic was wrong? I’m going to argue that stress affects five in five of the working population and in fact, the population as a whole. It’s an inescapable part of life; in fact, it’s essential to your survival and needed to get you out of bed in the morning.

Just what is stress?

A very clever man named Hans Selye once defined it as:

         “the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change”

Simply, it’s the changes brought about by something new that we’re not used to. As he rightly points out, these changes aren’t specific; they’re unique to the individual. Some of the changes are physical, some psychological and often we experience both. Here’s a short-list of just some of the possible changes that can occur in a stressful situation.

Physical

-       Increased heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate

-       Sweating

-       Dizziness and fainting

-       Pins and needles

-       Tight, achey muscles

-       Indigestion

-       Fatigue

Psychological

-       Unable to sleep

-       Inability to switch off

-       Changes in appetite

-       Irritability

-       Difficulty making decisions

-       Restlessness

-       Mood swings

-       Loss of interest in activities and withdrawal

There are many more and that’s what makes it challenging to diagnose and treat; we all get stressed in different ways.

Good and bad stress

How can any of the changes above be good? Well, let’s give you a simple example. You’re sat at your desk one day when a hungry lion, recently escaped from the zoo, wanders in. At this point, your heart rate, breathing and blood pressure increase, as do levels of stress hormones, firing you into action so that you can run away and hide in the store cupboard. Stress can be a real life-saver.

The word stress comes from the Latin word ‘stringere’, meaning to draw tight or put something under tension or pressure. We all need a little pressure in our lives as that’s what brings about change. Exercise is the prime example; your heart only gets stronger when you challenge it with a run, bike ride, Zumba, Insanity, walk up the stairs, spot of gardening or whatever takes your fancy. Your skeletal muscles only get stronger when you challenge them with weights, Pilates, gigantic elastic bands or heavy shopping. In fitness, it’s known as the principle of overload, or as I like to say…no challenge, no change.

Equally, in life, we need a challenge. Ever had a job that was so easy it was stressful? What did you do? You went and sought out a tougher job to get a bit more stress in your life, because you knew it would be good for you.

This good stress is known as Eustress, and, as always in life, this is balanced out by the bad stuff, which is termed Distress.

Distress occurs when stress takes us beyond our ability to cope, or rather sometimes, our perceived ability to cope. It may actually be that there is a way to cope; we just can’t see it at the present time.

Our clever chap Hans Selye, who we mentioned earlier, identified three clear stages to stress, which he called his General Adaptation Syndrome or GAS for short.

1) Alarm – our initial reaction to a stress. This might be a sudden increase in workload, or the lion entering the office, which leaves us with any combination of the signs and symptoms discussed earlier.

2) Adaptation OR Resistance – Stage 2 is pivotal. We may discover a way to adapt to the new circumstance; maybe we can shift our working day around to fit in the work or discuss with our line manager that it can’t be done to the deadline being requested and agree a new date or get someone else in to help, or in the case of the lion, we run into the store cupboard, close the door and phone for help. At this point, the stress levels reduce.

If we don’t do this however, that’s when resistance occurs, which essentially means we don’t find a way to adapt.

3) Exhaustion - The lack of adaptation means the stress continues over time and that’s when the changes we’ve talked about become an issue; for example, blood pressure stays higher, our appetite is increased causing weight gain or our lack of sleep affects our mental and physical state and ultimately, our health.

It’s vital to say here that what classes as eustress and distress is unique to everyone. Some people find a certain job, workload, task or process highly stressful, whilst another absolutely loves it. It’s why sometimes people find it hard to empathise with other’s stress; ‘but I do that job and it’s absolutely fine.’ That really isn’t the point here.

What can we do about bad stress?

Essentially there are three things we can do to lessen the likelihood of distress and deal with it better when it occurs:

1) Increase our resilience to stress

2) Decrease the amount of stress placed upon us

3) Distract ourselves from the stress or learn to see it in a different light

Resilience – here we build up our minds and bodies to be able to cope with more stress before it becomes distress. Imagine your body as a drinking glass, and stress the water that you pour in. The aim is to turn it from a small tumbler into a pint glass, able to cope with more fluids before it spills over. If you can increase your reservoir, you have the capacity to deal with more stress without being negatively affected.

We can make both our minds and bodies more resilient to stress; here are just a few ways:

• Exercise – there are so many benefits of exercise for stress management. Your heart is stronger and healthier and more able to cope when placed under pressure, moderate intensity activity helps to control levels of stress hormones, it can act as a distraction from work and life, socialising with others whilst doing it is known to reduce stress and getting outdoors, particularly into green space or around water is a proven way to reduce stress levels.

• Healthy eating – certain foods and drinks can help with stress management. Reducing caffeine and swapping for herbal teas like chamomile or Rooibos is a particularly powerful technique, as is ensuring you get all the vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other plant nutrients you need. This helps to keep your immune system on top form as it’s known that stress is particularly potent when it comes to lowering your body’s natural defences. If you can get your 5-a-day that’s fantastic; if not can you simply increase your intake by one or two above where you are now?

• Sleep – another powerful protector of your immune system, sleep is when your body repairs, recovers and files away the day’s stresses and challenges. It also helps regulate your mood, meaning you often find it easier to cope with stressful situations. Look to go to bed a little earlier, ensure the environment is calm, quiet and cool, and if you have stresses on your mind, attempt to wind down from them at least an hour before bedtime with a hobby or something more relaxing; music, reading, puzzles, it doesn’t matter so long as it works for you. Some find writing down tasks for tomorrow or current concerns helpful, as it means they won’t forget about them tomorrow but don’t need to deal with them now.

• Psychological techniques – there’s been a boom in recent years in tools and techniques to help us manage stress. Mindfulness, meditation and relaxation are all hot stuff right now and that’s because many people find them to be powerful tools.

Here are a few simple tools you can try:

Progressive relaxation – this is my go to technique. Sit somewhere quiet, just for a few minutes. Begin by taking a few deep breaths, then starting at your toes, tense the muscles for a second or two and then focus on letting them relax completely. Repeat the process for your calf muscles, thighs, hips, core muscles and all the way up to your shoulders, neck and even face. You’ll be amazed how much more chilled you feel by the end.

Count your breaths – another one that’s quick and easy to do. Sit or lie somewhere comfortable, although you can do this stood in a queue for your lunch or in the post office too. Breathe out through your mouth for a count of eight, pause briefly then in through your nose for four. Repeat for around 60 seconds.

Mindfulness – there are numerous mindfulness techniques; this one is great as it can be done anywhere. When you feel yourself getting stressed, pause and just focus on the things around you at present. Look away from your laptop or phone and work through your senses, noticing three things you can see around you at present, three you can hear, smell, touch and even taste. It’s a great little distractor to bring you back to the present.

Affirmations – I often notice how my clients are their own biggest critics, but during our conversation, I’ve noticed a range of things that seem to be going extremely well. It’s easy to focus on the negatives and leave ourselves feeling stressed and down. When this happens, get a piece of paper and make a list – what have I done well today or this week? Give yourself some praise for these things and sometimes things feel a little better.

There are of course other tools and techniques you can use; here’s a link to a fantastic website with a whole host of others for you: https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/stress/developing-resilience/#.WnReFq10dp8

Decreasing the amount of stress we’re under

This bit is all about taking stock; asking ourselves ‘can I do all of that in that time-frame?’ or ‘am I taking on too much?’

If the answer is yes, here’s some stuff you should consider:

• Do I need to have a conversation with my boss, colleagues, partner, friend or other person who can act as support crew about it? As Bob Hoskins once said, it’s good to talk and it often leads to solutions that can decrease our stress load

• Look at where else we can reduce stress. I know when I’m super busy that trying to push myself really hard in exercise sessions doesn’t help. I need to work out for my sanity, but long runs, heavy weights and tough intervals are replaced by low-intensity, shorter workouts to help me stay balanced without becoming completely worn out. And to prove that I sometimes get this wrong, last week I was very busy with work and then at the weekend I decided to lift the heaviest weights I've done for some time and run the furthest I've gone in ages; result? I now have a cold. Well...man-flu and we all know how bad that can be! ;-) 

• Always remember that change is possible – we’re never really stuck in a situation. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to change but there’s likely something that can be done to make it better.

• Ask for help. Reaching out to someone, be it a medical practitioner, counsellor, manager, colleague or friend, is not a weakness, it’s a strength. And it’s the first step in reducing our stress levels.

Distraction and reframing

One of the reasons exercise is thought to be a great tool to combat stress is that it takes your mind off it. Whilst you're thinking about getting enough air into your lungs, making it up that hill, lifting that weight or getting that ball back, it's hard to also think about work deadlines and finances. It offers an escape.

And there are other escape tools too; yoga, tai chi, meditation, listening to music, reading a book, socialising with friends, taking the dog for a walk, stroking your favourite pet, playing games; it really is whatever works for you. 

There are of course less healthy distractions like smoking and alcohol. Don't get me wrong; they work to distract you from the stress but at the same time they add physical stress to your body so they aren't ideal long-term solutions.

Reframing is the art of looking at something in a different way. Think about these two words:

- Stress

- Challenge

The first is often thought of as being negative, whilst the second more positive, but they can actually mean the same thing. If you see a workload as a challenge then it's something you want to conquer and might actually enjoy whilst doing so. Are there any stresses in your life that you could reframe? Thinking about them in a different way may make a surprising difference to their impact on you.

Important points to stress

1) Can you build your resilience to be able to better cope with the stresses you face?

2) Can you reduce the amount of stress you are under?

3) Can you find a way to distract yourself or see the stress in a different light?

Doing just one of these may help you to find a little more balance.

Thanks,

Paul

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

We're approaching the end of another year and many of you will now be with loved ones as the festive celebrations get into full swing.

It's a time for family and friends, traditional food and drink, and films and TV shows you've probably seen many times before. For many, it's a difficult time because of these things. There's a mixture of thoughts and feelings - you want to relax, unwind, celebrate and enjoy it, but at the same time, there's a worry about weight gain, health, energy, guilt and generally feeling bad. This conflict is always present but this time of year exaggerates these thoughts and feelings even more.

The thing is, however you choose to spend your Christmas and New Year, remember that it's just a week. Health and fitness don't happen overnight and neither does being unhealthy or unfit. They are an accumulation of behaviours over time.

     "You are the sum of your behaviours."

Eating chocolate or drinking alcohol isn't bad for you. It's bad if you do it too much, too often. So if you decide this week to go wild, the most important thing to do is to enjoy it and remember that you can't do great harm if you get back to balance afterwards. It's only an issue if the less healthy behaviours continue for longer.

You may decide to enjoy a few less healthy things or you may feel that you'd rather have a healthier week so you come out the other side feeling positive and energised. The choice really is yours. Whatever you decide, here are a four ideas you might consider that can help add a little balance to your Christmas and New Year:

• Go for a walk - even a small amount of exercise helps. Five minutes of walking outdoors improves mood as much as an hour-long workout, just 30 minutes of moderate intensity can decrease blood pressure for a few hours and control blood sugar levels for 12 hours. If you're feeling lethargic or sleepy it's a great way of getting a bit more energy.

• Drink water - dehydration is one of the major reasons why you end up with a hangover, so just try mixing in some water or squash in between the drinks.

• Eat something healthy - fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, there are lots of healthier foods popular at Christmas too, so just try to include some each day in between the festive treats.

• Enjoy it - the worst thing you can do is go for the less healthy options and then feel bad about it. If you're going to go for booze, chocolate, mince pies, christmas cake or christmas put, at least savour the moment. If you have in mind you're getting back on it after Christmas or once the New Year begins, you'll have 51 weeks to balance it out and all will be well.

Whatever you do, I hope that you have yourself a merry little Christmas.

Yours in balance (or out of it for a few days),

Paul

Why Stoptober works...and what you can learn from it

Stoptober is in full flow, with people quitting for 28 days initially.

Recent years have seen a boom in one-month challenges, including Stoptober, the quit smoking for October challenge from the NHS, Dry January or Go Sober for October, Veganuary and the infamous Movember.

So just why are they so successful?

1) It's only a month.

Quitting smoking or alcohol forever seems like a pretty daunting task. Take it down to just a matter of weeks and all of a sudden it appears much more doable. As Stoptober say on their website however, quitting for 28 days makes you 5 times more likely to quit for good.

What can you take from this? When you want to make a change, why not do a trial run of it first, setting yourself a goal of doing it for a short period of time to begin with.

2) In it together.

Knowing that you're part of a group aiming to achieve a shared objective can be highly motivating. You feel like you don't want to let others down or be the one who falls first.

What can you take from this? Find someone you can share your change joinery with, a friend or a family member, or maybe even a group of people. Helping others and getting help when you need it can make a real difference.

3) Taking on and overcoming the challenge

The public nature of these events leads people to tell others they're getting involved, and we all like to feel good when people praise us for achieving things. 

What can you take from this? If you want to change something, maybe making it known to others will spur you on to make it happen, partly through a fear of being seen to fail but also because you'll feel great when others praise you for your efforts.

4) Expert support

Many of the charity challenges have advice and support on how to make the changes from qualified experts. This means you go into them knowing you have help from reliable sources.

What can you take from this? Look for advice on making your change from a source you trust and who can help with your particular challenge.

5) Raising money for good causes

Charity can be a real motivator for change, and when people have sponsored you to do something, you often feel very motivated not to let them down.

What can you take from this? Even if it's not a major charity fund-raising change, maybe you can add some value to it. Make a bet with someone that you'll pay for dinner or drinks if you don't succeed, and they'll pay if you do. Or reward yourself by purchasing something you want (it's best if it's not food as this can lead to a link between food and mood which isn't always helpful) or by putting money into a jar towards a bigger dream purchase if you manage to succeed. For example, you can put any money you would've spent on alcohol or cigarettes into a jar towards a holiday.

Bring me sunshine - how the yellow ball in the sky impacts your health

We all enjoy it when we wake up, peek through the curtains and discover that the sun is shining. Just what is it that makes catching a few rays so good for us? Here are seven great reasons:

1)   Sunlight boosts your stores of vitamin D, which works with calcium to give you healthy teeth and bones. What you may not know is that it also plays a role in keeping your eyes healthy and may help protect against heart disease, cancers, diabetes, arthritis and MS.

2)   Exposure to sun and heat improves your body’s ability to sweat efficiently, enabling you to stay cooler better. Effectively it helps you develop a better air conditioning system.

3)   Sunlight has also been shown to boost testosterone levels in men, which may help to improve muscle growth and increase your sex drive.

4)   It boosts your body’s natural defence mechanism; your immune system by improving the function of special cells whose job it is to protect your from illness.

5)   Sunshine increases levels of a substance known as Nitric Oxide within your body. This causes your blood vessels to widen and can lower blood pressure as a result.

6)   Ever wondered why you feel so happy and relaxed on sunny days? Well, one reason may be that it boosts levels of serotonin, a chemical in your brain known to elevate your mood and regulate your appetite. This may also be why we find it easier to eat lighter meals in the summer.

7)   It’ll help you remember everything you’ve just read! Exposure to sunlight has been shown to improve memory and help you get better sleep. Getting more of the latter also improves memory.

The clear message – be sure to get some sunshine as often as you can. Be sensible though; too much in one go on very hot days can lead to sunburn and may increase skin cancer risk in the long-term; as with all things it always comes back to balance. 

The great outdoors

With summer finally here for most of us, it’s time to take exercise outside. There’s a whole host of reasons why getting outdoors is good for you:

Sunlight – natural light increases your vitamin D levels and boosts your mood by raising levels of important hormones.

Nature – believe it or not some research has shown that being active in picturesque settings improves mood whereas the same activity in unpleasant surroundings can actually make it worse. You’ll know this feeling, there’s something about the greens of the grass and trees and (hopefully) the blue of the sky, the blaze of colours in autumn or at sunset.

Immune strength – being stuck in an air-conditioned office with fellow workers can increase the likelihood of picking up coughs and colds. As exercise boosts the immune system, a little walk outside may help strengthen your defences.

Smells good – the fragrances of nature, like fresh slowers, cut grass or the smell of rain leave us feeling relaxed and happier.

Feel energised – research has suggested that in as many as 90% of people, being in fresh air surrounded by nature increases how energetic we feel, and it’s cheaper than coffee!

Here are four exercises you can do to ensure your abs look in tiptop shape for a spot of sunbathing!

The front squat – squats actually activate your stomach muscles far more than sit-ups and adding a little weight to hold increases the challenge further.

Press-ups – another great exercise for the deep muscles of your core, as well as your chest, arms and shoulders too.

Side Plank – firm up those love handles with this simple exercise.

Back extensions – to ensure your entire middle is strong and toned and you look after your back, add this great exercise in to your workout.

Fancy exercising outdoors? Why not join our weekly balance boot camps.

Wenesday’s, 6-7pm, up on Clifton Downs (at the corner of Ivywell Road where it meets the Downs). If maps isn’t your thing, it’s about 250 yards up from where the ice cream van is always sat at the lookout point! :-) 

Want to know more? Get in touch.

Her are a few snaps from some of my own recent outdoor workouts!

How to have yourself a balanced little Christmas: five festive coping strategies

It’s that time of year again. Parties, work nights out, seeing friends, three course meals, mince pies, wine, mulled wine, hot wine, more wine, beer, cheese, hot dogs at the German market, Christmas cake, biscuits, chocolate, oh and maybe a bit more wine!

How do you, and more to the point your scales, survive all of this? To help you through the festive minefield I’ve included below five ways to fight the festive flab.

1) Don’t!

I bet that surprised you!? The key question you need to ask yourself is do you want to be conscious of your eating, drinking and exercise for the next few weeks? If the answer is yes, read on for the next tips. If it’s no, then why beat yourself up about it or go through the pretense of saying “oh I won’t eat this” or “I’ll just go and have one or two drinks”?

If you’re well balanced for 11 months of the year, and you want to lose balance just for one, then so be it, accept it and get planning to get back on it in January. Alternatively, ask yourself, is it really worth potentially giving up all of those valuable improvements you’ve made this year for the sake of a few weeks?

2) Use a buddy

Friends, work colleagues and partners can be extremely valuable. In fact, everybody can benefit from having a “Santa’s Little Helper”. Get them to remind you of your goals at the office Christmas party, plan your meals with you or help in any way that you agree with them.

3) Get an advent calendar

No not the chocolate type, but use a proper calendar to plan your Christmas schedule. Plan in your Christmas parties, evenings with friends, shopping expeditions etc and then make sure you plan in some exercise sessions around it. If it’s in the calendar it’s far more likely to get done.

4) Choose your own presents

Not the ones from Santa obviously, they’re made by the Elves at the North Pole so you can’t change what you get, that depends on whether you’ve been naughty or nice this year of course.

You can choose which of the festive treats you will indulge in though and which you will say no to. Select a couple of your absolute favourites and plan to have these as your treats. I’ll be choosing mince pies with Baileys clotted cream and Lindt chocolates. I’ll be saying no to Christmas Pud and Christmas Cake as I don’t really like either that much.

5) Write to Santa

Instead of writing your present wish list, write out your goals for the holiday period. It might be to maintain weight, exercise a certain number of times, consume 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day to balance off the festive goodies, or even to set a realistic goal for weight gain, whatever works for you.

However you choose to do it, may your days be merry and bright….and balanced of course.

Paul

The 5 best websites containing the 3 best magazines with the 7 best articles on the 10 best foods to eat and 5 best exercises to do to lose weight

Do you know what the 5 best exercises are for weight loss? Do you know which 3 foods will boost your energy levels more than any other food on the planet? What about the 10 best workout DVD’s? 6 most effective cellulite busting tips? 7 most effective running workouts to improve your marathon time? 

No, I didn’t think so. And I suspect and hope that this is because you realise that there aren’t 5 best exercises for weight loss, or 3 miracle energy-giving foods. There’s nothing wrong at all with the media highlighting effective exercises to help you stay fit and healthy, or to promote foods that you may not have tried or that have possible health benefits identified in scientific research.

The problem comes when you’re led to believe in these things as miracles and cure-alls. Stocking up your cupboards with acai berries will not mean you never get a cold again, drinking endless litres of grape juice will not mean you’re guaranteed not to suffer from heart disease and eating a grapefruit a day is the not answer to all of your weight loss goals.

So what can you take from these articles? Think of yourself as a plumber, your aim should be to expand the number of tools you possess. You may learn that there are one or two exercises you’ve never done before and you can add them into your weekly exercise routine. Or you’ll see a food that you’ve just discovered might support your goals in doe way, so you think you could add that to your weekly shop occasionally. No single exercise or food will provide the answer or everybody would have done it a long time ago and somebody would have earned a lot of money in the process. Similarly, there is no one tool that a plumber can carry to provide a solution for all jobs they do. The best and most effective plumbers are the ones that literally have a tool for every job. 

When I teach Personal Trainer courses, one of the most important pieces of advice I give to any budding PT is to build up their toolkit as much as possible. Know a wide range of exercises and methods and different ways of helping people to change. Many business in health and fitness these days have been built on the notion that their way, or their piece of exercise kit is the best, the one for you, the answer to everybody’s problems. As a public we believe in this, probably for a few reasons:

1) It is a quick fix - it looks pretty easy. I just stand on that wobbly thing three times a week and I’ll look just like I want to.

2) It doesn’t take me much effort - I don’t need to think. I just eat add water to those powders twice a day and then eat dinner and I’ll be the weight I want to be in no time.

3) It might work - i’ve tried so many things and I’m desperate to get back to the weight and size I used to be so I’ll give it a go.

And of course it may work, but it also may not. People are different and some respond better to certain types of exercise than others. Equally, one diet may make a real difference to one individual whilst at the same time having no effect on another, or even worse cause another to gain weight. Unfortunately there is no ‘wonder test’ that tells you which eating pattern works best and which exercise routine is right for you. And of course what is right for you can change over time as your life changes. Age, stress levels, sleep patterns and a whole host of other factors can affect your energy levels, metabolism and hormones, which in turn change how much physical exertion you can cope with and which foods will help you.

Over time a personal trainer gets a good 'feel’ for how these factors work together, and can advise you on what may well be the best options for you, but cannot say with 100% certainty that it will definitely work. It often does, but even then your life situation may change and things will again need adapting to best suit you. Even without a PT to support you, it’s important to remember:

1) There is no such thing as failure, only learning. Trying a new exercise routine and eating pattern may not work in its entirety for you but you’re bound to learn something, even if it’s what not to do in future. I read a wonderful quote this week from Michael Jordan, one of the best basketball players of all time. It encapsulates this idea wonderfully:

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

2) The best way to achieve long-term success in health and fitness goals is to become attuned to your body and its needs. It will always tell you what it wants and you can learn from its reactions what the '5 best exercises’ and '3 best foods’ are for you. 

So, remember to take any 'x best’ lists with a pinch of salt, learn from them and use them to try changes in your own lifestyle but whatever you do, don’t rely on them as gospel and don’t be disheartened if these miracle cures don’t work for you. Note what you’ve learned form your attempts and then adapt, maybe make a small tweak if you think that will work better or try something completely different.

Over time you can make your own 'x best’ and 'x worst’ lists for you. Here’s a few examples of things I’ve learned about my own body through my journey through health and fitness:

• If I try to train hard without getting enough sleep (8 hours for me), I am likely to pick up a cold, especially if I train in the mornings.

• Whilst I know they’re good for me, apples and nuts don’t fill me up when having a snack, oranges and bananas on the other hand do the job nicely.

• I work best on a reasonable amount of carbohydrates. If I don’t eat enough wholemeal bread, rice, quinoa etc I find it harder to concentrate, feel hungry more quickly and don’t perform as well in the gym and in any races I take part in.

• Cheap muesli tends to give me stomach ache after eating it.

• I work best on low to moderate volume training at a good intensity as opposed to doing lots and lots of exercise.

Take time to learn about you and it will pay dividends, helping to keep you fit and healthy, and looking and feeling like you want. If you don’t know where to start, please get in touch, I’ve designed lots of ways to help you through my company balance weight loss and I’ll always answer any questions you may have.

Be happy and healthy,

Paul

info@balanceweightloss.co.uk

0775 200 1203

The balance advent calendar day 2: Surviving the Christmas Party!

At this time of year, party season kicks into full swing. Friends, work, family, another work do, sports clubs and a whole host of other groups get together to celebrate.

And celebrating can mean food and more often than not it means copious amounts of alcohol!

So here’s 10 ideas that are absolute crackers for surviving the festive season and not eliminating all of your good work to achieve your goals.


1) The Water Chaser Method - a tried and tested method for limiting the effects of alcohol. For every drink consumed order a glass of water with it. Ok so you’ll spend more time in the loo, but hey that’s less time at the bar!

2) The Small Plates Method - this is backed by scientific research. Smaller plates means two things, firstly smaller portions and secondly, it means that even a small portion looks bigger and more filling.

3) The Scrooge Method - take only the amount of money you intend to spend. Alright, you can sponge a few drinks off others, but every little helps.

4) The Grinch Method - don’t feel obliged to say yes to absolutely every invite. Choose your celebrations wisely, arrange to meet at times and locations that are unlikely to turn into epic eating and drinking sessions.

5) The Eat Before You Go Method - control your food intake by eating before you go. This method can be used with buffet affairs where the temptation to consume at least one of absolutely everything is hard to resist. By eating at home and choosing something healthy and filling, appetite is reduced later on. It also means that the alcohol you consume won’t have as large an effect on you.

6) The Pre-Booked Taxi Method - arranging for someone to pick you up at a specific time can prevent nights from rolling on, and on, and on, until they become day!

7) The Support Crew Method - everyone knows that there’s power in numbers, so team up with someone equally determined not to let Christmas send them off the rails and offer each other support across the evening (or evenings) in question.

8) The Big Night Out Method - ok so you won’t find us recommending bingeing sessions very often, but for some people recognising that they are going to go out, relax and enjoy themselves can be a good way of preventing post-party guilt. All you’ve got to to do is get yourself back to your normal routine afterwards and the damage can be minimised. And remember, life is about balance after all.

9) The Day After The Night Before Method - one of the biggest dangers of a big night out is often the food consumed during the hangover period. Plan ahead like you’re planning a military operation. Get food in that you know is healthy and make sure you don’t have the junk food you know you’ll crave. Drink plenty of water when you get home and have healthy fluids available for the next day. Get lots of rest and try a gentle bit of exercise, a walk for a little fresh air is a good idea, a big circuits session is not!

10) The Public Confession Method - many of us don’t like to tell people just how bad we’ve been. So resolve to confess your sins publicly and post all of the food you ate and alcohol you drank on your social media feed.


Above all, as we’ve said, life is about balance. So it’s up to you if you want to use December as your month to enjoy yourself or you want to find a method that allows you to be that little bit healthier. Whichever you choose, make sure you enjoy yourself, it is Christmas after all!